Hefty fees may be reason for couches, mattresses and other items
along Gilroy streets
Gilroy – You can see them everywhere. Couches, mattresses, refrigerators, and stoves decorating the city’s roads and polluting the waterways – and hefty dump fees may be to blame. The streets and alleyways of Gilroy are becoming South County’s dumping ground for unwanted household items – from the television down to the kitchen sink.
“It’s worse here than up in San Jose. They have 10 times more people but we get a lot more trash,” said South County South Yard Road Supervisor Steve Kline. “It’s a lot more now than it used to be.”
The problem used to be household trash. But now, South Yard crews haul abandoned items such as appliances, campers, trailers and even boats from the roadsides on a daily basis.
“A lot of it is the price of dump fees,” Kline said. “(People) dump it on the side of the road and put the $20 bucks back in their pocket.”
The San Martin Transfer Station charges $25 per cubic yard of waste and larger items such as mattresses and couches cost $25 apiece to leave at the transfer station.
South Yard does not just collect roadside waste. They pave roads, build structures, trim trees and control erosion, but sometimes picking up trash takes precedence.
South Valley Disposal and Recycling Inc. is under contract with the City of Gilroy to collect bulky waste clogging the roads and public accesses. Two to three times a week they are called to remove trash.
“A lot of times the alleyways behind apartment buildings (are popular dumping grounds.) If someone’s moving out they’ll often discard a piece of furniture,” said General Manager Phil Couchee. “People want to get the trash moved out as quickly as possible. They tend to attract other items if they’ve been left out for a long time.”
Last year, in a three day clean up effort – 629 cubic yards of debris such as yard waste, branches and downed trees were removed from the local waterways, along with 582 cubic yards of trash.
Nine refrigerators were fished out as well as a plethora of washing machines, cars, and water heaters.
“To give you an idea how much that is – divide (582) by 8 – that’s how many dump truck loads,” said Mike Di Marco, a spokesperson for the Santa Clara County Water District.
That’s more than 72 truck loads of trash clogging the waterways.
“Unfortunately, that stuff gets stuck under bridges and can cause flooding,” he said. “We haven’t seen an increase, but man, there’s a lot of garbage down there.”
According to Di Marco there’s a saying down at the water district: “If you don’t want to drink it, don’t dump it.”
Driving around Gilroy Wednesday two abandoned couches sat waiting for collection on Holsclaw Road. On Santa Teresa Boulevard an old mattresses laying flat against a wire fence. A smashed car pulled onto the shoulder of Monterey Road lay abandoned, with an orange ticket on the windshield flapping in the wind.
The alleyways are another hot spot. City officials believe it may be due to the high volume of renters moving in and out of apartments.
Perhaps it’s because there are less eyes around to see, or perhaps it’s because of the inviting open space – but farmers and ranchers seem to be hit the hardest with illegal waste littering their properties.
Kip Brundage, owner of G&K Farms spends an average of $200 a month to remove trash from his property.
“We’re going to the dump as we speak,” he said Wednesday afternoon from his cell phone as he drove a 14-foot flatbed truck filled with tires, a desk, and yard waste. “Today’s dump will probably cost us $100, plus my guys’ time.”
Mondays are usually the big clean up day for him and his crew. They frequently find items such as refrigerators and couches.
“The other day I found 40 gallons of oil, batteries, a lots of appliances,” Brundage said. “A lot of times its oil, toxic stuff that you can’t take (to the dump.) … It’s convenient for people to dump because there’s nobody around at night.”
Brundage believes part of the problem has to do with high dumping fees.
“Unfortunately it’s the farming communities that are paying heavily for it,” he said. “We can’t leave it because it will just attract more. All of the farmer’s are having problems with this. It gets worse every year.”
Owner of G&G Farms, Joe Gonzales suffers from the same problem.
“It’s a pain in the ass to tell you the truth,” he said. “We have the fields nice and clean and then people come dump on them.”
He has spent between $3,000 and $4,000 removing waste such as tires, roofing, mattresses, and lumber from his fields.
“Sometimes it’s once a week, sometimes it’s twice,” he said. “It looks to me like it’s the same people over and over again … You can’t blame the people for one reason – because they’re poor.”
He suggests the city hold a free week of trash pickup similar to what Santa Clara does.
“It’s unsightly for a week, but it gets rid of the trash,” he said.
Those dumping may drive across town to remote areas, or may be from outside Gilroy. No one really knows because those dumping don’t stick around long enough to get caught.
Currently, the city responds on a complaint basis, unless it is a road hazard or in the public right of way, explained Environmental Programs Coordinator Lisa Jensema.
Since the city started monitoring trash pick up last October, 52 couches, 66 mattresses, 12 computer monitors, five refrigerators, two brick fireplaces and a pool table were removed from Gilroy streets. This does not include unincorporated areas of Gilroy that South Yard covers.
“Illegal dumping has been a problem in South County for as long as I can remember,” said Deputy Doug Vander Esch, who patrols the rural areas and hears firsthand about it from the farmers and ranchers.
The City is beginning a new beautification program this month called Keep Gilroy Beautiful. While still in the planning stages, do gooder residents maintain strips of roadways and volunteer in community clean ups.
“Some people’s perception of Gilroy when they visit – getting off the train or (U.S.) 101, they see garbage on the off ramps,” Jensema said. “We just think it’s a good idea to involve the community and use their leadership skills.”
Keep Gilroy Beautiful
– There are places you can go with televisions, VCRs, stereos and computer equipment that will collect the items for free, such as Western Recycling in Morgan Hill and Thomas Recycling in Gilroy.
– Brochures ‘Keep Gilroy Beautiful’ are available at City Hall for more information about the different clean ups and programs, such as Great American Clean Up Day, storm drain maintenance and daffodil planting.
– To report illegal dumping call, 1-888-510-5151.
